Bill and Paul HobbySon of Oveta Culp Hobby (Bill) and Former Lieutenant Governor of TexasGrandson of Oveta Culp Hobby (Paul)

1.) How did Ms. Hobby’s legacy influence you?

Paul Hobby: Oh, she just had high standards. And so when at her funeral somebody came in and reflected and they said well she was such a great feminist and my wife was standing there and my wife said “Well I don’t see it quite that way.”

Bill Hobby: Well if you think back mother she disliked the term of feminist.

Paul Hobby: And that’s where I’m going with that she wanted to succeed on merit and any game that you would let her into she would win it because she had the intellect and energy and the charm and the drive and all that stuff. And so there when you think about people that are pioneering for one kind of civil rights or another they are usually righteous or they were angry, she was none of those things. She was just task driven and she had incredibly high standards so if you would in casual conversation use an adverb without an “-ly” in it or try to start a sentence with a jarent or split an infinitive, she’d call you out. I mean if it were Christmas morning and you were opening presents you know you kind of knew that you had to bring your A game because she was she had a very eclectic standard for herself and she knew that she applied that to her grandchildren and children. You know she was never the frivolous grandmother baking cookies kind of person. She didn’t try to be that, she wasn’t that. You even when I was a young married person with little kids she would call me and she would go call me and ask “Did you watch the British Parliament Debate last night, you know on C Span?” And here is something sort of odd, but I felt that way at the time. She had a stroke in June in 1995, and that the Oklahoma bombing that Alfred P Murrah building if you remember that guy Timothy McVeigh. That happened in June or July so she died in August but wasn’t aware of anything between June and August. And I remember being really grateful that she wasn’t aware of that because it was a big deal. It was a horrifically obviously because it blew up childcare center and killed a bunch of kids and it was right in the heartland and a very unsettling event. You guys live in a world that is pretty scary and you know it. We didn’t quite know it at that point so I was grateful that she wasn’t conscious because it would of only hurt her. When the gulf war started she was inconsolable, they really thought that they were greatest generation fighting the war to end all wars. Of course we don’t think that anymore. So she hadapplied her high standards to the world which we live in.

Bill Hobby: One thing I remember was her saying that somebody was interviewing her asking her about her career and she said “Well I just did the next thing that came along” and that’s pretty much true. Some pretty big things came along.

2.)What do you think Mrs. Hobby’s most influential legacy was?

Bill Hobby: Well that in spite of not being a feminist or because she wasn’t a feminist she was a very prominent woman leader. And that is certainly an important part of her contribution from the person right there.

Bill Hobby: She grew up in politics. Her father was in the legislature. He would go to Austin; he would take her with him. And I don’t know, she was in her late teens she was committee clerk. And one story I always loved, this would have been I think in 1929 she was a clerk at the state banking commission. In 1929 it was the beginning of the great depression. Banks were failing all over the state and all over the country. But the banking commissioner was fresh out of banking academy. Scattered all over the state till one day he said “So Ms. Culp I want to go to Temple to examine the such and such bank.” she replied “Mr. I’m not a banking examiner.” And he said “Well you are now.” I’ve always loved that story.

Paul Hobby: Yeah, she figured out by the time she got to Killeen she probably understood banking well enough to form a reasonable opinion about the solvency of this bank. So a lot of times life throws things at you and it’s not about whether you’re qualified but whether you’re willing to get that way. And she would get that way. On the legacy question I tend to agree even though shedidn’t see herself as a feminist. The mail that came in after she died. A lot of people knew her and it was national news when she died and in so letters from friends and stuff you don’t want to discount that I’m not sure that demonstrates her historical worth. The letters that were most powerful read I never met Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby and I never saw her either but I remember like yesterday, you know I was a schoolgirl in Iowa and listening to the wireless during the war and her voice came over and speaking authoritatively about something or another in the northern theater of war in Europe. And she said at that moment I realized that I didn’t have to do what girls did in Iowa. Which is grow up, have a farmer husband and have babies and stay at home and be a farmer’s wife. Nothing wrong with that but so these people were saying well I have been you know undersecretary of this or you know attorney general of Iowa or Kansas or where ever they were writing from but these women have gone on to live lives of distinction but they’ve never met her before, but they heard her voice on the radio and they never forgot it because it opened a door that they didn’t know was there. So I do think the legacy has to do with female empowerment.

3.)How was Mrs. Hobby a leader?

Bill Hobby: I think she was born that way. But as Paul said earlier, every organization or cause she ever connected with, she became the leader in it.

Paul Hobby: When I was in law school they dedicated her something in Killeen. And I was the only family member available that was nearby. So I drove up there from Austin and there was a lady up there telling a story. She said “Everything we did whether it was athletics or penmanship or debate or whatever it was.” She said “My contest was always for second place.” And she said “We were good with that. We did resent that. We didn’t hold it against her.” She was that good. She was that driven. And I think that creates an opportunity to say something that we need to know. And that is that she was good humored. She had a mighty cackle of a laugh. And if you hear about a serious purposes driven woman leading by example deifying a men’s world you have this vision of this militaristic personality. She could be serious but she could also be a cut up and laugh heartily at herself. And so she had some charm to go with all that drive and all that intellect she had. And she was an attractive person never the less.

4.)How would you describe Ms. Hobby? What would be 3 words you would use to describe?

Bill Hobby: Well she was, as Paul said, well for one thing she was always impeccably dressed. She was a forceful person. She got it done.Paul Hobby: Private I think is a word that I’m going to put out there because we hadn’t talked about that. And you would think that somebody, she was a press magnet and I mean she was such a novelty that obviously there were a lot of people that were interested in her. But in her last 10 years of life all her friends had died and there were times that I would sort of go to her a little bit and she said “Well privacy is the only compliment that I’m willing to pay myself at this time, at this point of life.” So she, we tried to get her to write a book or a memoir or just sit with a tape recorder with my niece or my cousin who was a literary person. Then she said she refused to do it. She kept saying “Well it would compromise to many people whose names you wouldn’t have known.” Well I didn’t point out that all those people were dead. But she had photographic recall of history but she was so private that she never wanted to spit it back out as her legacy. There was a book on Truman that was popular. David McCullough wrote it and biography of President Truman and before his previous career. And so while I was reading that book, she knew I was reading it she would call me every two or three days and go “Where are you now?” And then I would go, “I’m at the part where this meeting in the white house in the oval office. And she was like “And who did they say was in the room?” And I would say well that said that the vice president da, da, da you know I would say whoever they said and she would say “Well that’s almost right” she said “actually you know Mr. Truman had left the room by the time the decision was made and somebody came in and” blah blah blah. So she had this memory like fly paper. And there’s this famous writer called Marcel Proust. If you will read someday Remembrance of Days Past and this guy is telling you how thetable was set at his third birthday. That’s her. She had that kind of memory. But she wouldn’t put it back down on paper.

5.)What’s the most inspirational thing about her?

Bill Hobby: Well she was anything you’ve heard in any case. She was a leader. Leaders, by definition, demand the best from the people they lead and she certainly did that. Well, I don’t know if that’s inspiration or demanding or what.

Paul Hobby: I think what was so inspiring is that she ...she had a humanity to her but she recognized her lesser instincts. Do y’all know what I mean when I say lesser instincts? The base responses of human beings you know. Whether it’s jealousy or greed or whatever you want to call it. And she could see them in her life and she would call them out and she’d go “Oh I’m about to give in to my lesser instincts but my better angels tell me, you know, turn the other cheek and to think well of that person and I’m just going to drive on.” So she didn't pretend to be someone who didn’t have base instincts. But she’d call them by name and she would put them down and say “Wow, I’m just really dying to be ugly to that person for this and such reason but she’d talk it out and then she’d decide not to because that would diminish her and not them. So the most inspiring thing is that she could sort of see her own psyche and cancel out bad thoughts with good thoughts.